Dragon and Liberator

Alison smiled. But it was a slightly brittle smile. "There are always other possibilities," she said. "But there's no point in trying to dig too deeply into this. Don't forget, we don't even know for sure that Harper's not exactly who he claims to be. His little bag of tricks could be some game the Patri's pulling on his allies."

"Because they're only allies of convenience," Taneem murmured.

"Exactly," Alison said.

"What about us?"

Alison frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Are we only allies of convenience?" Taneem asked, her eyes steady on the girl.

Alison seemed to brace herself. "We're genuine allies, Taneem," she said, her voice low and earnest. "More than that, I hope that we're friends."

"I hope that, too, Alison," Taneem said. "Because I trust you."

Alison laid her hand on the K'da's head. "I trust you, too, Taneem," she said. "We have to, you know. Because we're all we've got."

"I know," Taneem said softly.

"And we're going to get through this," Alison continued. "Come on; let's get something to eat."

She turned toward the supply cabinet. "And after that," she added over her shoulder, "you can tell me your impressions of Harper, Neverlin, and Frost."

"And the Valahgua?"

"Yes," Alison said grimly. "Especially the Valahgua."

CHAPTER 15

They were on their way to the Foxwolf's Number One weapons bay when Jack felt the sudden change in the air around them.

It wasn't anything obvious or big. Rather, it was a combination of small things. The ship seemed to go oddly quiet, as if dozens of casual conversations had been broken off or reduced to whispers. The background rumble of thudding Brummgan feet likewise softened, as if the big aliens had suddenly found reasons to stand still.

And as the background noises faded, they were replaced by a sense of watchful foreboding.

The enemy was on to them.

I think we've worn out our welcome, buddy, Jack warned as he continued down the corridor.

I know, Draycos agreed. We'd better get to cover.

Jack chewed at the inside of his cheek as he kept walking. According to Draycos's directions, the weapons bay should be right around the next corner. How far is your bolt-hole from the weapons bay?

Not far, Draycos said. In fact, there should be an access point from the bay's interior.

So if we can get in, we can wreck the Death weapon and go straight down the rabbit hole?

Theoretically, yes. But that would require us to get past whatever defenses they've now organized around the Death. I don't think we can take the risk,

I don't know, Jack said thoughtfully. Unless Langston changed his mind and turned us in, they have to still be thinking it's Chiggers going around doing God only knows what. We ought to be able to keep them thinking that way at least long enough to get through the next set of guards.

If that is their assumption, Draycos warned. If not, even now they'll be setting a trap for us.

I'm sure they are, Jack agreed. But even laying a trap implies they don't realize who we are. If they knew they had a K'da poet-warrior aboard, there should be alarms going off all over the place right now. Followed by massive quantities of gunfire.

Assume for the moment that you're right, Draycos said. What would be our plan?

Assuming I'm right, we should still have one surprise attack's worth of slack left, Jack said. Reaching into his side pocket, he slipped Harper's two-shot tangler into his palm. I'm thinking we march straight up to the guards like we own the place, hit them with Harper's tangler, then go in and wreck the Death weapon. Then we do a quick fade into the woodwork and work on our new strategy.